Comics fans: A few questions from someone who isn't (yet?)

[Christopher]

It's comics in general. Even graphic novels...I've had trouble really grasping what it is to them that I can't get out of a book or a movie.

That's like asking what there is to sculpture that you can't get out of painting or photography. Or what there is to song that you can't get out of speech or instrumental music. It's a distinct artistic medium. That alone is justification enough.

I suggest you find a copy of Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics. It's a good exploration of what defines comic books as a medium and what their distinct creative language is all about.

 

[Thrawn]

i still want an explanation for 'canon bitch fixes' in Double Time.

Peter David tends to spend a fair amount of time in a lot of his books weaving together various disparate strands of Trek lore into something more coherent. This I term a "bitch-fix"; I got it from a programmer, a friend of mine. "When you have a beautiful algorithm that works perfectly, except it doesn't work for zero, so you have to write a huge chunk of code that's longer than the algorithm itself just to deal with that... bitch-fix." I liked the term, and I've used it for lots of other things, too, so in my head the definition is more like "going out of one's way to fix things that perhaps didn't need fixing or that take a bit too much effort to do so." Which Peter David does a lot. I actually think it's a positive aspect of his writing, I think there's value in treating the Trek Universe as one big unified whole and that effort towards that end is useful.

But in Double Time there was so little space to begin with that his discussions of various time-travel oddities from past episodes, in an attempt to legitimize the whole process, seemed out of place and tangential.

I usually remember not to use the term "bitch-fix" unless I'm talking with my friends that understand what I'm talking about; I apologize for any confusion.

 

[captcalhoun]

i don't see any 'bitch fixes' in there. there's just a call-back to TOS to explain how they can be in two places at once.

 

[Thrawn]

Whatever.

 

[Therin of Andor]

i don't see any 'bitch fixes' in there.

PAD had to explain why "New Frontier" managed to miss the whole of the Dominion War. And the time travelling jaunt in the comic explained that, and Selar's truncated pregnancy.

 

[Therin of Andor]

It's comics in general. Even graphic novels...I've had trouble really grasping what it is to them that I can't get out of a book or a movie.

For me, the magic of comics comes from nostalgia. My brothers and I were not bought comics as kids, although we did read the Sunday strips in the newspaper every week - including a wonderful, now-rare, newspaper introduction to the character of Batgirl, which ran during the weeks and months before Batgirl turned up on the third season of the wonderful "Batman" TV series in the 60s. And, if we were sick, Mum would buy us a few British comic books, "Beano", "Bunty" and "Sparky". And a "Phantom" comic was traditional in a Royal Easter Show showbag!

Then, perhaps every 18 months or so, we'd receive a brown paper grocery bag of comics, passed on from a cousin we hardly ever got to see. In that bag would be Disney and Harvey comics, plus the odd "Archie" or DC superhero comic. Once there was even... a "Teen Titans" comic! We would devour the whole pile over a week or so, often sitting in the tent belonging to the girls next door.

It was only many years later, when I'd see an interesting title on a newsstand, that I realised how expensive a single comic was, especially for the brief time involved in reading it. However, a beautifully drawn, well-written comic does withstand multiple readings, and even multiple casual browsings. So when I found Star Trek fandom in 1979, I rediscovered a few Gold Key ST in second hand shops... and then Marvel's new post-TMP line. As bad as some of those were, the nostalgia was also strong. Different to watching the ST movie at the cinema, different to episodes on TV, and different to reading the Bantam novels, but better than Gold Key.

About the same time, I began to follow "Titans", again remembering that lone TT issue from my childhood, the coming of Nightwing, and then "Fantastic Four", while researching their uniforms for a convention.

So, what's special about Star Trek comics? I dunno. They just are.

What I loved about the "Watchmen" movie two weeks ago: even though I barely new the original mini-series, and read the first 4 issues before seeing the film, it captured the nostalgia for days gone by that, for me, is intrinsically entwined with comics.

 

[SicOne]

As someone who sees what you have desribed as "bitch-fixes" in his line of work all of the friggin' time, I rather like your explanation of it!

 

[C.E. Evans]

Why do comic book fans like comics? Because they do. Honestly, that's really all there is to it. Any further exploration into it ultimately comes back to the same answer.

Someone else might ask why do people like novels (too much reading, dude!) when you can just look at a movie instead. In the end, it still just boils down to what people like, IMO...

 

[SicOne]

Question, folks...is there a comic book BBS like this one, where you can ask questions and get information? More to the point, somewhere where you can find out if a series you have been picking up has been discontinued or delayed?

 

[Christopher]

If you mean for Trek comics, that falls under this forum's purview. If you mean comics in general, I'm sure there's a ton of them, but I don't know of any specific ones to recommend.

 

[Captain Randy Hall]

The quality of the artwork of the recent IDW trek comics is far superior to that of the Marvel - DC/Wildstorm years. Artists like Stephen Thompson, David Messina, Casey Maloney, and Steve Conley have really raised the bar. Even Gordon Purcell has turned it up a notch.

When the IDW trek comics started coming out I decided to give them a try. After reading the first year's worth of releases I was totally hooked back into trek-lit. Ultimately this brought me back to the novels.

My recommendations are the first TOS Year Four series, Blood Will Tell, The New Frontier mini-series (much much much better, and 5 times longer, than the shitty Double Time one shot), the Mirror Universe mini and the Alien Spotlight issues. Especially the borg one. Personally i'm also a fan of both of the TNG mini-series. Not everyone is, as they take place over the course of the tv series.

As for the art at IDW, I agree that a lot of their pencillers have indeed been producing top-notch work. John Byrne has produced some interesting stuff on Romulans by way of Caligula.

For a long time, Purcell worried me in that I could tell which collector's photo he was copying entirely, but lately, it seems that he's giving his characters more life and just copying the faces of characters. That's a huge step forward, IMHO.

Agreed on both Year Four series, Alien Spotlight and some of the Byrne stories, like a sequel to Assignment Earth (He got Gary Seven's face down pat).

Also, Countdown has been, to coin a phrase, "fascinating." If you haven't gotten the first issues, IDW will produce a trade paperback in late April.

I also recommend TNG: The Last Generation, which has some great Purcell art mixed with a universe where the Klingons conquered the Federation and it's up to Jean-Luc Picard and his rag-tag group of followers to straighten out the timeline. (This is worth the price just to see the new look Wesley Crusher gets.)

And there are some great things coming down the road. I'm really looking forward to "Mission's End," which will explain why the crew was scattered all over known space at the start of ST:TMP.

Yeah, I'm a big fan of what IDW is producing. While I haven't been wild about most of the TNG series, most of the Classic Trek-era comics have been fun (to quote my favorite starship captain). And I'm glad to see this happen, for several years, there were no Trek comics to support, so I'm also waiting for the TPB that will show us a comics version of Wrath of Khan, which has never been done.

If you see something that interests you, the $3.99 price tag will be a lot lower in cost than buying an entire trade paperback.

 

[HIj'Qa]

Question, folks...is there a comic book BBS like this one, where you can ask questions and get information? More to the point, somewhere where you can find out if a series you have been picking up has been discontinued or delayed?

Try the many threads at http://forums.comicbookresources.com/

If you know the specific publisher, they all have their own websites and forums.

None of them are as cool as TrekBBS, though.

 

[captcalhoun]

i don't see any 'bitch fixes' in there.

PAD had to explain why "New Frontier" managed to miss the whole of the Dominion War. And the time travelling jaunt in the comic explained that, and Selar's truncated pregnancy.

still don't see it as a 'bitch fix'.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Question, folks...is there a comic book BBS like this one, where you can ask questions and get information?

http://www.comicboards.com/

 

[Allyn Gibson]

i don't see any 'bitch fixes' in there.

PAD had to explain why "New Frontier" managed to miss the whole of the Dominion War. And the time travelling jaunt in the comic explained that, and Selar's truncated pregnancy.

The Dominion War problem was that Once Burned's framing story was set either immediately before the Dominion War or during its earlier days, while Double or Nothing (which for the Excalibur crew was set days later) was set immediately after the end of the war.

New Frontier was written using "comic book time." Everything takes place in the "present," no matter when it's published.

There's been no explanation that I can remember for Selar's gestation period, as that's a problem Gateways caused. For New Frontier to sync up, a year's worth of adventures (the Excalibur trilogy) have to be crammed down into three months.

My current preferred solution is to 1) ditch "Double Time" completely (or at least the time travel "fix"), and 2) Double or Nothing is set days after Once Burned, in the early days of the Dominion War. I've decided that Peter David is much like Dr. John W. Watson; he doesn't let facts and dates get in the way of telling a story. So, I guess that makes me a bit like Fr. Ronald Knox or William S. Baring-Gould, trying to decipher what was really meant.

 

[captcalhoun]

uh, the eXcalibur trilogy does only take place over a few months. Robin and Morgan are on Risa whilst Mac's on Wild West World, Shelby's running the Exeter and Mark and Zak are dealing with Q and Soleta's blowing up Romulans.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Internally to New Frontier, there's roughly a year between the destruction of the Excalibur in book 8 and Cold Wars. Externally to New Frontier, there's about three months.

 

[captcalhoun]

the eXcalibur trilogy takes place over 6 months. Kebron says 'busy six months' when Mac introduces Moke. That trilogy takes place in 2376, Dark Allies is in late 2375. Cold Wars, Being Human, Gods Above and Stone and Anvil all take place in '76.

or at least that's what my NF chronology says that i had on my NF site...

 

[Thrawn]

The fiction timeline in VoI says Dark Allies is early 76, Excalibur trilogy is immediately thereafter, and all the rest that you mentioned also take place later that same year.

edit: And judging by stardates (yeah, yeah) that does put approximately 6 months between the beginning of Excalibur and the Gateways incident.

 

[Stevil2001]

Gateways occurs in May 2376 according to the Unity timeline and The Future Begins, which means that four months at most elapse between Dark Allies and Cold Wars. And it's not as though eXcalibur begins as soon as the former ends or ends as soon as the latter begins, which means that its six months of events have to fit into 3-3.5 months.